• Milliner Philip Treacy
• Galway, Ireland
• The g hotel
• The d hotel
• Buy Philip Treacy's hats
• Lighting by designer Tom Dixon
• Accent tables
• Anichini luxury linens

Hotel Eye Candy

The phrase "mad as a hatter" has an uncertain origin - some assert that it described the condition suffered by many 18th- and 19th-century hatters who used mercury when making hats and hallucinated because of it.

Chances are milliner Philip Treacy hasn't been using mercury anytime recently, but you wouldn't know it from the likes of his latest oeuvre . . . a creation that's not a hat at all.

Treacy, a native of County Galway, Ireland, is the mind behind "the g," a candy-colored, genre-bending, hip hotel in the county's capital.

Why would a hat designer design a hotel? Why not!

The hotel, which opened late last year, is the flagship property for the Monogram Hotel Group (the company also owns "the d" in Drogheda, Ireland).

Looking to tap into Treacy's distinctive flair (the designer's made everything from fedoras to lobster hats), the group commissioned the local to have a go at the hotel's interiors. The g is testament to the flamboyance he's known for.

Contemporary furnishings outfit its restaurant, where purple velvet banquettes make the space pop, but glamour reigns in the Cocktail Bar. Red Swarovski crystals sparkle in the surface of the mirrored bar, over which the skilled mixologist can deliver his infamous mojitos. Regal drama suits the Grand Salon: Views from the floor-to-ceiling windows are as spectacular as the light installation by designer Tom Dixon. Meanwhile, the Pink Salon reels psychedelically - ladylike chairs in hot pink camouflage are grouped with sofas and sexy little tables on a black-and-white concentric-patterned carpet.

All this visual stimulation make you need a rest? The rooms, done in a (shocking!) neutral palette, offer some respite. Inspired by the area's landscapes and seashores, the designer's influence is still present, right down to the Treacy-designed Frette luxury linens, into which you'll happily tumble after a day of trekking through the virtually untouched Connemara wilderness or the area's cobbled streets. It's possible, however, that the hotel will have enough stimulation to keep you from ever wanting to leave its threshold.

In fact, you just might never want to return to the place where you normally hang your hat.

 

Posted on May 15, 2006